Herman H. Fussler

Herman Howe Fussler (May 15, 1914 – March 2, 1997) was an American librarian, library administrator, teacher, writer and editor, who was a pioneer in the use of microphotography.

Fussler attended the University of North Carolina, and in 1935 received his A.B. degree in Mathematics.

Louis Round Wilson, who was a friend of the Fussler family, encouraged Fussler to become a Librarian.

In 1936, Fussler received his bachelor's degree in Library Science.

During his schooling, Fussler's social world flourished as well; a year later, Fussler married Gladys Foster Otten.

They had one child, a daughter, named Barbara Lynn.

The summer after Fussler graduated from the University of North Carolina, he accepted a position with the New York Public Library (NYPL).

He worked in the Science and Technology Division in the library and was noticed by Harry Miller Lydenberg, the then Director of NYPL, and Keyes Metcalf, who was currently the head of the Reference Department.

Even though Fussler was offered a full-time position with the NYPL, he decided to accept an offer from Director M. Llewellyn Raney to work for the libraries at the University of Chicago.

Fussler ran the Department for ten years from 1936–1946.

He also major directed a microphotographic copying project at the World Congress of Universal Documentation Paris in 1937.

He was also Science Librarian for the University As the Science Librarian, his responsibility was to "oversee the collection development and administration of the departmental libraries."

Fussler was appointed Assistant Director, Associate Director, and then Director of the university libraries.

In the 1940s, Fussler and some of his colleagues began considering how they could create a storage facility for important, expensive, and underused texts, mainly those for research purposes.

Following the example set forth by the New England Deposit Library, librarians from the Midwestern schools known as the Big Ten, as well as Fussler came together to make this dream a reality.

The Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Foundation provided much needed grants to open the Midwest Inter-Library Center (MILC).

The MILC is known today as the CRL or Center for Research Libraries.

Fussler was asked to help with the planning of a new Library for the University of Chicago.

He was genuinely frustrated that there were certain school departments that housed their libraries' collections in several buildings.

He believed that these departments should join forces and house their materials together under one roof in this new construction.

While at the University of Chicago, Fussler continued his education, receiving his M.A. in 1941 and PhD in 1948.

When he arrived from New York, Fussler was asked to start up the Department of Photographic Reproduction.

He began as an instructor in 1942, became an Assistant Professor in 1944, a Professor in 1948, and acting Dean of the Library School in 1961.

During his term as Library Director, Fussler published several articles in scholarly publications such as Library Quarterly and American Documentation.

In these articles he wrote about problems that face academic libraries and what he expected to see in happen in these libraries the future.

Fussler served as director of the University of Chicago libraries from 1948 to 1971, was Dean of the University of Chicago Graduate Library School, from 1961 to 1963, and was instrumental in the founding of the Regenstein Library.

He helped create the Center for Research Libraries.

He was an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Born in Philadelphia, Fussler moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina as a child, where his father became a physics professor at the University of North Carolina.

As a high school student, Fussler developed an interest in microphotography while working in the university's physics department; an interest which stayed with him throughout his life.

He held that title from 1948–1971.

In 1965, the Joseph and Helen Regenstein Foundation granted ten million dollars to be put to use to create the new university library that would incorporate several departments' materials.

Fussler worked closely with the architect Ralph Youngren to plan a library that would utilize the space well for patrons and collections alike.

Fussler served on the U.S. National Advisory Commission on Libraries in 1966 formed to "make a comprehensive study and appraisal of the role of libraries as resources for scholarly pursuits, as centers for the dissemination of knowledge, and as components of the evolving national information systems."

The final report, Libraries at Large: Tradition, Innovation, and the National Interest,, provided documentation for legislation that led to the establishment of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.

Groundbreaking for the Regenstein Library began in 1967 and three years later the library was completed and opened.

In 1971, Fussler decided to step down, so that he could pursue his other passion full-time, teaching.

He had the same sense of enthusiasm while teaching graduate students that he did for working in the university libraries.

Herman Fussler died thirty years later, in March 1997.

Fussler was ranked as one of the "100 of the Most Important Leaders we had in the 20th Century" by American Libraries.